Apolitical Staples

Too many bloggers are “hip young geeks” that have strong opinions, like most kids, (and many adults too, of course), but like most kids, lack the experience to know where archived opinion leads. Even Harper ran afoul of this during the last campaign, for commentary long predating the ‘net. Savvy experienced politicians know well the dangers, but the current crop of wannabees are going to learn the hard way that they must, at least publically, represent the views of their constitutents, not themselves. Witness the collapse of Hubert in BC. and the soon-to-be collapse of Hashim, for Hall-Findlay (follow SDA). Problem is, the candidates themselves aren’t sufficiently streetwise to know how to vette their volunteers. The first clue has to be enthusiasm: if the young noobie has got lots of it, you’d best check his brain-space. High probability a lot of uninformed thought rummaging around in there, looking to implode at the wrong moment. Ah, the mendacity of youth!

Not quite as bad as all that, Greg.

Bloggers are like most people, except that when they rant, the rant is recorded. Campaigns can’t afford to ignore them because they have a medium to reach the online public and they’re not afraid to use it.

It’s usually the most immediate statements that get bloggers and candidates in trouble. If a blogger can keep control, there’s no problem.

Can you rephrase your first sentence? There’s at least one typo in it that’s making parsing it difficult. Thanks!

Regular volunteers are one thing. Communication Directors, quite another. Interestingly, Jason Cherniak has made a very strong stance on this. Now he’s the blogger for Sthephan Dion. Stephan has failed to clarify his stand on this issue of Israel and Hezbollah/Lebanon. If Dion’s position differs from Jason’s, will Jason step down?

Greg,

Any campaign would be glad to have you on board.

Folks, y’all are falling for the oldest form of wink-and-nudge politics.

Kinsella is a Gerard Kennedy man. See his posts from earlier this year.

Kennedy - and now Findlay - supporters/volunteers are making strong pro-Muslim statements. Of course, the campaign then immediately distances itself from the anti-Israel rhetoric, but the message to voting delegates (thanks to Kinsella’s nonstop flame war) has been sent.

Now, guess which delegates these guys - Kinsella included - are winking at?

What surprises me is why the Tory supporters are joining in? How does it help the Conservative party to be labeled the anti-Muslim party?

Kinsella on Kennedy: March 2006.

[Mar 6/2006] “The federal Liberal Party, meanwhile - based upon what I witnessed at the Ontario Liberal Party’s Heritage Dinner last Thursday - is in need of some serious reassessment of its own particular swath of fabric. I am really encouraged by the possibility of names like David McGuinty and Gerard Kennedy, however. I know both men, and know they would be outstanding candidates. The rest of them? The parade of pygmies? Don’t get me started.”

Also, see his March 1 post.

This is all part of the game. Don’t take it too seriously, and stay out of it. (Are you listening Jason “Foot-in-Mouth” Kenney?)

Thanks IP. I fixed it.

I think that there has to be consideration of previous comments based on the time in which they are stated.

Young dumbass Thomas made those comments during the previous week, so it appears they are accurate reflections of his current thoughts and beliefs on the subject.

His particularly stupid “vile nation” comment is pretty outrageous no matter what the context, however suppose that he or another blogger wrote something along the lines of “mild shock” rather than “full borne outrage”.

If the comment is in the past and it has become clear through subsequent writings that the comment was either out of normal context, or that the author’s beliefs have evolved over time, than I cannot see using a past comment as a club to use against the candidates that said author endorses or works for.

I left a question for Jason to see if his moral outrage will include Stephan Dion’s inability to state his stance on the ME. Jason is having so much success vilifying the competitors in the Liberal Leadership race that he can’t see the forest for the trees.

The Libs should go back to the days of picking a “successor”.

Their “power at all costs” turned inward at one another isn’t pretty.

Course the whole thing about Harper not being nuanced enough on his Isreali stance seems about a million miles away right now.

The Libs appear to be in constant self destruct mode.

A big part of the problem is that blogs, like the rest of the Internet, provide a shield of false anonymity that makes you react as though you are in private, when you’re really not. The flamewars we see in the blogosphere and Usenet simply wouldn’t happen 99% of the time if, instead of arguing with our computer screen, we saw the people we were really dealing with.

Rule of thumb: never, NEVER, say anything on your blog that you wouldn’t be comfortable saying in a normal, conversational voice within a crowded diner. The consequences of not doing so are so numerous, they could fill a book.